Preserving Canning Wisdom: Kathi from Washington

[Editor's note: This one in a series of essays by winners of our "Preserving Canning Wisdom" giveaway.]

The best way to convey the arts of preservation are to live them. My kids have watched me can (and dry, freeze, pickle…) food since before they could talk. This is just the way it is. In our house, it’s not something amazing or weird or magical. We grow food in our yard and we don’t waste any of it. This is how I was raised and how my mother and grandmother were raised before me.

Now that my mom and grandmother are both gone, it’s more meaningful to me to “put by” (as my grandmother used to say). My oldest is old enough to handle a knife, so he gets more responsibility in the process. And, for now, my youngest’s main involvement is to eat the half-sour pickles that he loves so much. He has a pickle dance, that we make him do every day, to earn his pickle.

CAA Contributor Kathi Jenness lives in Renton, Washington. Read her blog at Rocky is a Sick Raccoon.